Thanks Hicksy. My apologies to both Clay and Paul Young. I have made the corrections to Clay’s surname in my post. Thanks again.
Yes, Kevin Moore and another guy, Matt Lynch (47.97sec, third behind Offereins and Moore in heat 1), are part of the NSWIS fast track project, so is Lisa Spencer, third (in a PB) in the 400m Hurdles final.
Everybody had either run out of gas or were underdone (Lynch, Lisa) - due to injuries for the main. So it has been a troubled season and the athlete who had the least troubles made the most progress, that being Moore who is on the Games team. By the way, the Games 4x400 is also the Oceania relay for the World Cup in Croatia.
Moore was invited to compete in Japan in Shizuoka (May 3) and Osaka (May 8) but declined, opting on his own volition to rest now for a couple of weeks in order to resume a cycle of GPP on May 1 or 2 because he wants to press for a place in the final four line-up for the Delhi Com Games.
I think that sort of high performance mentality is what every coach is looking for.
Lynch, however, will make the trip and, so far as I know, may well team up with Clay Watkins in a long relay team to race in Osaka.
But Lynch, as stated, is well underdone after missing three months of event-specific training (in my opinion) and might do OK in a one-off race.
The experience in any case will be good as he has only raced 400m five times, two of those efforts being heats this season.
He opened his 400m career in late November with a win over the Beijing semi finalist Joel Milburn in 46.6 and then within a fortnight was on the injury list, badly tearing a hamstring muscle while taking a holiday on the Gold Coast with family and friends.
There was nobody present to hold him back when he tore on the fifth and final rep of a session supposedly being run at around 95% effort. After four PBs at four distances from 260 down to 140 he decided to wrap it up with another one to complete the greatest session of his life.
What is it that Charlie always says: “When you think you can do one more rep, you’ve already done one too many!”
Or, alternatively: “When in doubt, leave it out!”
I think Matt Lynch would have run sub 46sec this Aussie summer. How far under 46? Who knows?
I think the decision to take a holiday mid-season has cost him his dream of representing his country in a senior international championships - at least for the time being, but this was definitely his best chance to date.
He says he has learned his lesson. We will see. He is a lovely guy, good company but boy did he blow it!
In fact his failure may well have opened the door for his training partner, Kevin, to make the Games team.